26 October 2007

-- WASHINGTON -- New commercial satellite images show a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site has been wiped clean since it was bombed Sept. 6 by Israeli aircraft.

Analysts say Thursday that the cleanup will hinder a proposed investigation by international nuclear inspectors and suggests Syria is trying to conceal evidence.

Apparently the Syrians were so caught up in burying all the evidence, they forgot about that big "eye in the sky."

An image taken Wednesday by a DigitalGlobe commercial satellite shows tractors or bulldozers and scrape marks on the ground where the building stood in photos taken before the September Israeli attack.

Had the building not been razed, inspectors would have been able to tell from its construction whether it was meant to house a North Korean-style nuclear reactor, Albright said.

He said that the structure got a roof so early in its construction also suggests that it was a reactor.